Homemade Cherry Jam

Whenever I see a gift, I try to stand back and realize how lucky I am to have it. I have always wanted to live in a place with endless fruit trees. I would say that I’ve gotten my gift. This beast of a cherry tree sits right outside our front door. I would say I have plenty to be thankful for in the fruit department.

When we first started picking the cherries, we couldn’t figure out what kind they were. We knew they weren’t bing cherries and they tasted a bit like (and looked like) Rainier cherries, but those are only grown in the U.S., as far as I know. They have a taste all their own, a little sweet, but also a little tart. I have self concluded that these are sour cherries and I’m sticking with that. Whatever they are, they make amazing jam.

I made a gross miscalculation the first time I made this and didn’t pick enough cherries. What I thought was a lot, was not when I cooked them down. 90 minutes of work for 2 jars of jam. Yikes. The next time, I picked A LOT of cherries. This time I got 5 half pints, that was much better.

I do love the end result of pitting cherries though. I probably lost a pound of cherries from little hands picking out of the bowl. Who wouldn’t want to take advantage of fresh pitted cherries? Lemon juice and zest into the pot.

I almost didn’t make this post because there really isn’t a recipe. That is also the reason why I decided to post it. When doing research on the best cherry jam recipe, I couldn’t find a decent recipe with pectin. Not that I have to use it, but I suffer from extreme paranoia with jam not setting up and pectin is my magic bullet for that. Okay, no good pectin recipes. I finally settled on the jam philosophy from David Lebovitz here: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2005/06/norecipe-yikes/

It takes a little time, but it works. Here is what you need:

Cherries

Sugar

Lemon Juice

Yes, that’s it.

I started by cooking down my cherries. I smashed them as I went, but feel free to puree first and then add to the pot. I added the juice and zest of 1 big lemon. You have to have the acidity for water bath canning. Next you measure. For how many cups of cooked cherries, you add 3/4 the amount of sugar. I had 6 cups of cooked cherries, so I added 4.5 cups of sugar.

The next step is where the jam comes together. Boil it down. Since I stir mine constantly, I don’t like a violent boil. But it does have to get down to jam consistency, so take that as you will.

When you hold it up and it doesn’t fall immediately off of your spoon, you are almost there. This next tip is the best though:

Put a plate in the freezer and when you think the jam is done, set a little on the plate, return to the freezer for a minute and see if it gels. You are just getting it to cool down, so it isn’t so runny and boiling hot. If it gels and wrinkles up, then it’s good. If not, keep boiling and try again. You can see by my plate that I tried 3 times, I’m so impatient.

Skim off the scummy bubbles on the top and throw it away.

You can do a couple of things at this point. You can freeze it, use it immediately, or you can process in a water bath canner using regular canning methods. If you haven’t canned before, here is a perfect resource for you to begin: http://www.freshpreserving.com/

That’s where I go with my canning questions.

I decided to do a water bath and process my jam in half pints. I knew we wouldn’t use it all right away and freezer space is a luxury here, so this was my best bet.

There is always a little left over to put right in the fridge though for breakfast. It’s so good!

Related

Comments

I recently purchased 50 lbs of Rainier Cherrys here in Olympia, Wa. I used this recipe, and the jam turned out great. I processed a 28 cup batch today, which extended the cooking time a considerable amount, due to the moisture content in he fruit. Patience was a virtue. Woooohooooo. Greg